The Harlem Renaissance

1415 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Music and harlem renaissance

Segregation and racism in the 1920s was mundane for the average African American, but as they put that aside they were respected by many whites. The rise of the jazz age was due to the prohibition of alcohol. People were selling alcohol illegally and many African Americans began playing music known as the jazz age. Many white folks came to watch famous African musicians play in secret clubs called the cotton club. In the 1920s when there was prohibition and racism, many African Americans had to deal with discrimination, and segregation between the whites. During that time the Klu Klux Klan population was at an all-time high. Being colored was dangerous because the KKK members were out to hunt for people who weren’t white. Africans were driven out of the South from the whites and also the bot weevil. They were forced to migrate to the north. These areas had poverty. Luckily, African Americans could overcome this hatred by creating a new age called the Harlem Renaissance. Making the North well known for its gargantuan transformation and making it a success. The connection towards Gatsby is that Gatsby had hired a band that played jazz. This came from African Americans as jazz influenced many people throughout the world. The Harlem Renaissance was an era of where African Americans became famous, well known, and respected for their music and literature.

Many Africans were forced to work in the sharecropping system. The Klu Klux Klan has greatly impacted the Africans. During the 1920s there were only two main jobs Africans could choose from, sharecropper and farmers. This made life hard for African Americans because of the lack of available jobs for the colored. They were evicted from the south so they moved to the North. “After t...

... middle of paper ...

...flect crisis. However, song writers either ignored economic hardships or they approached them head on.” (Young). Musicians and writers were very motivated; nothing could alter what they have been doing. They just keep striving for the best no matter what is happening around them.

The 1920s was a huge step forward for all African Americans. They proved to the whites that they weren’t just a bunch of slaves and savages, they were equally the same compared to the whites just different skin color. Blacks showed their true potential when they have the right to do what they want. They created jazz that drastically changed the music industry till this day. They were loved by so many people and jazz became popular. There were also African poets and writers that wrote out their deepest emotions. The Harlem Renaissance was truly a great success for all African Americans.

Show More
Related

  • African American´s Limitations from 1865-1900s

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...

    Read More

  • Summary: All That Jazz

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 1920s was a vast change and movement for African Americans. As the great migration took place, blacks became popular for jazz music and singing. This period was not always easy for the African community as it still faced prejudice and segregated clubs that rejected them.

    Read More

  • Duke Ellington In The 1920's Essay

    752 Words  | 2 Pages

    The 1920’s were about change and expressing yourself. It was also a time where African-Americans were able to finally express themselves and have people enjoy it. Duke Ellington is a great example of this because he was able to transcend race, age, and promote a new 19th-century mindset, bringing us into the 1920’s. As he transcended race, he took part in the Harlem Renaissance allowing others to enjoy African-American music. “Ellington arrived in New York just when jazz emerged as the dominant musical style of the Harlem Renaissance” (Butler). Ellington’s power to make music that was popular and catchy helped him and his band become famous. The Harlem Renaissance and

    Read More

  • Harlem Renaissance and Jessie Redmon Fauset

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of blacks that helped changed their identity. Creative expression flourished because it was the only chance blacks had to express themselves in any way and be taken seriously. World War I and the need for workers up North were a few pull factors for the migration and eventually the Renaissance. A push was the growing discrimination and danger blacks were being faced with in the southern cities. When blacks migrated they saw the opportunity to express themselves in ways they hadn’t been able to do down south. While the Harlem Renaissance taught blacks about their heritage and whites the heritage of others, there were also negative effects. The blacks up North were having the time of their lives, being mostly free from discrimination and racism but down South the KKK was at its peak and blacks that didn’t have the opportunities to migrate experienced fatal hatred and discrimination.

    Read More

  • Analysis: The Harlem Renaissance

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to a period at the end of World War I through the mid-30s, in which a group of talented African-Americans managed to produce outstanding work through a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. Also known as the New Negro Movement. It is one of the greatest periods of cultural and intellectual development of a population historically repressed. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of art in the African-American community mostly centering in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. Jazz, literature, and painting emphasized significantly between the artistic creations of the main components of this impressive movement. It was in this time of great

    Read More

  • History Of Black Wall Street ' Little Africa '

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even when the economy was low “Little Africa” still did very well, even when the whites weren’t. But due to the years of economic success the blacks had, the whites were jealous and the KKK was reorganized in 1915. Though they had trouble f...

    Read More

  • The Reconstruction-Era

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Reconstruction-era was an extremely rough period for the African-Americans as well as many white settlers. The African-Americans endured numerous hardships and losses as a result of the white settlers' frustrations. Although the African-Americans' losses were great during this time, the progress made throughout that period is amazing. Many of them were sent off with nothing, to live on their own and a number of them managed to meet success. Their largest success came when the Reconstruction-era ended. African-Americans fought and struggled for their freedom, rights, and equality, for years, and although it took them a long time, they accomplished what they set out to do.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby: America in the 1920s

    2392 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this novel, symbols are used to represent the changing times and create a picture of this era for generations to come. The history, settings, characters, and symbols embedded in The Great Gatsby exemplify life in America during the 1920s. Also known as the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, the American people felt that they deserved to have some fun in order to forget the emotional toll and social scars left from the war. The Jazz Age was appropriately named due to the illegal activities and good times, which included music, parties, and flapper girls. Jazz was a new style of music that originated out of the New Orleans area, where one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time – Louis Armstrong – began his career.

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance: Planned Phenomenon and The Search for An Identity

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the introduction to The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, David Levering Lewis states the Harlem Renaissance was not a cohesive movement, but a constructed and forced phenomenon that was “institutionally encouraged and directed by leaders of the national civil rights establishment for the paramount purpose of improving race relations.” (Lewis, xiii) However, after researching many influential artists, politicians, and orators of the time, I must disagree. While, yes, the movement of an entire cultural and racial awakening can only be seen as a phenomenon and the movement itself was by no means cohesive, these powerful men and women needed no institutionalized encouragement. Each of their works were their own with diverse ideas and methods, yet somehow, came together to form an interconnected goal within the movement.

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance: The New Negro Movement

    1679 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives” This was said by Aberjhani in the book Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotation from a Life Made Out of Poetry. Poetry during the Harlem Renaissance was the way that African Americans made sense out of everything, good or bad, that “contextualized” their lives. The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the Black Renaissance or New Negro Movement, was a cultural movement among African Americans. It began roughly after the end of World War 1 in 1918. Blacks were considered second class citizens and were treated as such. Frustrated, African Americans moved North to escape Jim Crow laws and for more opportunities. This was known as the Great Migration. They migrated to East St. Louis, Illinois, Chicago 's south side, and Washington, D.C., but another place they migrated to and the main place they focused on in the renaissance is Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance created two goals. “The first was that black authors tried to point out the injustices of racism in American life. The second was to promote a more unified and positive culture among African Americans"(Charles Scribner 's Sons). The Harlem Renaissance is a period

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance

    641 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance, originally known as “the New Negro Movement”, was a cultural, social, and artistic movement during the 1920’s that took place in Harlem. This movement occurred after the World War I and drew in many African Americans who wanted to escape from the South to the North where they could freely express their artistic abilities. This movement was known as The Great Migration. During the 1920’s, many black writers, singers, musicians, artists, and poets gained success including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. These creative black artists made an influence to society in the 1920’s and an impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

    Read More

  • Harlem Renaissance

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Great Migration, an influx of African Americans fled to Northern cities from the South wishing to flee oppression and the harshness of life as sharecroppers. They brought about a new, black social and cultural identity- a period that later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Originally the Harlem Renaissance was referred to as the “New Negro Movement” (Reader’s Companion.) It made a huge impact on urban life. The Harlem Renaissance played a major role in African American art, music, poetic writing styles, culture and society.

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    Occurring in the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, the Harlem Renaissance was an important movement for African-Americans all across America. This movement allowed the black culture to be heard and accepted by white citizens. The movement was expressed through art, music, and literature. These things were also the most known, and remembered things of the renaissance. Also this movement, because of some very strong, moving and inspiring people changed political views for African-Americans. Compared to before, The Harlem Renaissance had major effects on America during and after its time.

    Read More

  • The Negative Impacts of the Harlem Renaissance

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...     The Harlem Renaissance was a time of growth and development in for African-Americans. They wrote novels, performed in clubs, and created the genre of Jazz. However, the Renaissance was imprisoned by its flaws. Rather then celebrating the unique culture of African-American’s, it oftentimes catered to what the White Americans would want to see and hear. Although racism seemed to be lower in Harlem and the Northern states, for many Blacks racism was at all time high. The Ku Klux Klan reached membership of astronomical proportions. They marched on Washington DC and handed out membership cards bashing minorities. Less educated Blacks, or those who couldn’t make it to Harlem, were often deemed ignorant. There was a barrier built between those Blacks with an education, and those without. And when the Great Depression hit, African Americans lost their jobs at a rate almost triple that of White Americans. Where was the equality Harlem had fought so hard for? The Harlem Renaissance, although it did achieve some remarkable things, did not redefine African American expression. That ideal, would take many more years of strife, struggle, and segregation to achieve.

    Read More

More about The Harlem Renaissance

Open Document